Bulldogs Report: Mike Komisarek Profile

Drafted 7th overall by the Montreal Canadiens in the 2001 NHL EntryDraft, Mike Komisarek has made his much-anticipated professional hockeydebut this season with the Hamilton Bulldogs.

An NCAA product who opted out of the 2000 draft (and improved his CSBranking from 39th in North America in 2000 to 5th in 2001), Komisarekplayed two years at the University of Michigan totalling 46 points in 80games, including a 30-point final season in which he was named to boththe CCHA First All Star Team and the NCAA First All American Team aswell as being named the CCHA’s best defensive defenseman. He also hasexperience with the US National Junior program, having played in 51games during the 99-00 season as well as competing in the World JuniorChampionships in 2001-2002.

The first thing one has to notice about Mike Komisarek is his size.While he isn’t the tallest player on the Bulldogs (that honour goes to6’6″ Alexei Semenov), the West Islip, NY native is certainly thelargest, combining a height of 6’4″ and a weight of 240 lbs.

Afirst-year pro of that size is bound to draw attention and even more sowhen they come out of university with the kind of hockey credentialsKomisarek did, but all the attention in the hockey world counts fornaught if the player falters under the scrutiny. As with any first-roundselection, there was a great deal of pressure on the big defensemangoing into the Montreal Canadiens training camp this past September andhe did not disappoint, surviving several rounds of AHL demotions, endingup as one of the team’s final cuts before their 23-man roster wasfinalized.

The only rookie to outlast Komisarek was current Bulldogsteam mate Ron Hainsey. One indication of how the Canadiens managementand coaching staff feel about Komisarek is that he was given MarkRecchi’s old sweater number eight while with the Canadiens, while otherrookies were given training camp numbers like 65 (Hainsey) and 75 (Balej).

Offensively, Komisarek has been the leader of the Hamilton bluelinecorps with a goal and nine assists in 21 games, but perhaps the bestattribute he brings to this team is his crisp passing — with Ales Pisanow playing in the NHL, the Bulldogs lost their best outlet passer, butKomisarek has taken up the slack without missing a beat. His work on thepower play, getting that first pass into the neutral zone, has beenexcellent, and this ability has also improved the team’s transition gameas was evident in the recent 5-0 victory over the St. John’s MapleLeafs.

While his shot has only found the back of the net once, he isable to at least put it on net consistently to create rebound chances,unlike his usual defence partner Marc-André Bergeron, his passing skillsand his smooth skating will more than compensate for any goal-scoringdeficiencies in his game.

Though he is very aware of developing plays and sees things well enoughto keep the momentum of a game going, he does at times focus too much onthe offensive possibilities of a play and start watching the puck in theoffensive zone while losing track of opposition forwards playing at theblueline. Several times over recent games, he has been caught watchingthe play in this manner and has been caught standing still at the linewhen the opposing forward gets the puck and takes off down the ice,getting a two-on-one while Komisarek does his best to catch up.

To hiscredit, he does have the skating ability to catch up, but for a formerCCHA Defensive Defenseman of the year, these errors are both surprisingand disappointing.Another area in which Komisarek needs to improve is consistency — notoffensive consistency, but physical consistency. In the Bulldogs’ worstlosses of the season, many of the goals can be attributed to thedefensemen not keeping the front of the net clear of oppositionforwards.

While this is not a job for Komisarek alone, as the biggestdefenseman on the team, he should be acting as a one-man wrecking ballin front of Garon, Conklin, Fichaud, Antila, or whichever member of theBulldogs unwieldy goaltending committee is in net. Similarly, while hisphysical work along the boards has been above average, it also suffersconsistency problems. This is, most likely, due to inexperience at thepro level and playing against many players who have several years of proexperience — some of whom have several years of NHL experience.Komisarek certainly has the size and strength to be a force along theboards and in front of the Hamilton goal, but thus far, the force isonly showing up about sixty percent of the time.

Going into training camp, many fans were predicting that Komisarek wouldbe playing in Montreal’s top four on opening night and never set foot onan AHL rink. As I have stated many times, I’m a firm believer in thefarm system and I don’t believe any player should make the jump fromjunior or university straight to the NHL and I said at the time that Ifelt Komisarek needed AHL ice-time to elevate his game to a professionallevel.

That belief remains unchanged. While I have no doubt thatKomisarek will play in the NHL one day, he is at least another season,perhaps two away from being ready for the big league. Montreal fansshould realise that this is not necessarily a bad thing — as his skillsand decision-making improve in the AHL, so too will his confidence, andwhen he finally makes the jump to the Canadiens, he’ll be a far morecomplete player.